Inside the Bombardier CSeries CS100 Flight Deck

By Seth Miller / Published March 2, 2015 / Photos by author

MONTREAL, Quebec: When designing an airplane from scratch there is more than a little bit of flexibility on nearly every facet of the design. For Bombardier’s CSeries jet, the flight deck belies the compact size of the aircraft, offering the pilots a spacious workplace with all the most modern instruments and controls. Bombardier opened up access to FTV5, a CS100 aircraft, during the CS300 inaugural flight event and AirwaysNews went inside.

EXTRA: Bombardier CSeries Completes First Flight

Mark Elliott, Bombardier’s CSeries liaison pilot, was on hand to show us around inside the flight deck and point out some of the features unique to the new layout on a small plane. In some cases it is little things, like J-tracks for the seats, which allow easier access for pilots to get in and out. In other cases it is big things, like the windows up front. The windshield rivals a Boeing 777 in size, providing much greater visibility out from the seats up front. Add in Heads-Up Displays, and the pilots can keep their eyes facing forward throughout the trip rather than splitting time between the forward view and the indicators below.

EXTRA: The Bombardier CSeries Rolls Out but is it A Game Changer?

The control systems are all fly-by-wire using the latest technology and built by Rockwell Collins. Explaining the pilots’ participation in the design process, Elliott described one of the early conversations. When presented with the available choices from various vendors all were deemed lacking in one way. Eventually someone suggested that “You’ve got to pick one of them,” to which the reply was, “No, I actually don’t.” Eventually through a few rounds of design work with Rockwell Collins, a new system was put together and that is what made it into the flight deck for the pilots today.

EXTRA: Airchive Visits Bombardier’s CSeries Customer Experience Centre

Each of the screens can show any of a number of different data feeds, from radar to checklists to airport approach plates. Other features like joystick controls and trackballs rather than touchscreens were all part of the design process with pilots and engineers working closely together to create an optimal system.

The CS300 joins five CS100 aircraft flight test vehicles that have amassed more than 1,000 flight test hours. The aircraft family is a clean-sheet design that includes leading-edge technology and systems integration, advanced materials and the latest-generation aerodynamics.

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Contact the editor at benet.wilson@airwaysnews.com

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